God, I wish I was writing right now… But I am glad I’ve taken the time to properly plan and design Factions. The greatest tool in a writers arsenal is, very often, their bible. And that’s what I’ve been making on-and-off for the last couple of months.

This is only going to be a short entry, as most of what I’m writing about was covered in the 13th edition of The Exciting Incident (what do you mean you don’t subscribe? Do you hate me?). The purpose of this entry in the writing journal is to show off the result of that hard work.

When I write, I find confidence in the abstract, in trusting that when I get to the page, my masterpiece will perfectly translate from my mind to the page. And, each time, it doesn’t. The result is months of frustration, self doubt, and ultimate loss in commitment to the project. Worse than that, when I come back to the idea months and years later, I have no idea what the mess of notes and scenes even mean.

For Factions, I decided to do the unthinkable and be professional.

The result is a series bible that is simple, yet engaging. It gets to the heart of what I’ll be writing in September, October, and November when I actually get to start writing in earnest. Rather than finding the document stifling, I’m finding it incredibly liberating. The constraints of the research and the plotting have forced exciting scenes to emerge, full of thematic conflict.

In bibles I’ve made previously, I’ve obsessed over making the visuals exciting. It is, after all, a visual medium. This time, however, I’ve kept the visual flair to a minimum, and instead am relying on creating engagement in my… well… writing. It’s meant I’ve been forced to explore the specifics of the language I’m using, picking out what’s important about each character, storyline, faction, and more.

But, that’s enough waffling from me. I’m keeping a lot of the bible back as the project is ongoing, and I don’t want to end up making myself ineligible for future competitions by sharing too much online. BUT, I do want to show off what I’ve been working on because I’m really proud of it, and having a record of it in this journal will hopefully inspire some of you to join me in making simple, engaging bibles for your own projects.